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Bay Alarm

PACHECO, Calif.—Bay Alarm, a provider of residential and commercial security systems based here, is moving its corporate headquarters to Concord, according to East Bay Times, which reported that the company is moving to a 60,000-square-foot building on Port Chicago Highw

DALLAS—Innovative Business Software, a provider of central station software, says its SBN Cloud could reduce the amount of infrastructure needed for a UL-listed central station, cutting costs of building a new monitoring center by up to 75 percent.

YARMOUTH, Maine—Come this fall, you won’t have to flip through the several hundred pages of NFPA 72, the National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code, to find documentation requirements. Now, in the new 2013 edition, you’ll find the requirements all laid out for you in one chapter.

I’ve written about Pacheco, Calif.-based Bay Alarm before. The company, which is more than 65 years old, says it’s the largest independently-owned and operated alarm company in the nation. It’s certainly a competitive player in California, and now the company’s co-president has been appointed by that state’s governor to an important committee that oversees alarm companies in the state.

Here’s more from the news release Bay Alarm sent out early this month:

In one of his final appointments of 2011, California Governor Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr. named Matthew Westphal to the Alarm Company Operator Disciplinary Review Committee (DRC), part of the Department of Consumer Affairs, on Friday, December 30.

Westphal, co-president of Bay Alarm Company, the largest independently-owned and operated alarm company in the United States, has been a board member of the Security Network of America since 2001 and the California Alarm Association since 2000, where he served as president from 2009 to 2010.

"Because of my in-depth knowledge of the industry, and the California Code of Regulations, I feel well equipped to help steward this important Consumer Affairs Committee through the years ahead," Westphal said. "I am honored to serve on the DRC, and look forward to sharing my ideas and expertise."

The five members of the Alarm Company Operator DRC are appointed by the Governor of California and include three alarm company operators and two members of the public. The committee reviews appeals of fines against alarm company operators or their employees, and denial, revocation, or suspension of licenses, certificates, registrations or permits issued by the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services.

VIENNA, Va.— To combat the problem of frequent false alarms in commercial facilities, the Central Station Alarm Association has been working with the International Association of Fire Chiefs for the past year to come up with some proposed NFPA 72 code changes. Now the groups say they’re fighting a misinformation campaign about the changes, battling such claims that they’re “in bed” together and that the proposals are dangerous.

PACHECO, Calif.—On Jan. 1 this year, California joined Pennsylvania in becoming the first states in the nation to require the installation of automatic fire sprinkler systems in new one- and two-family homes.

YARMOUTH, Maine—It probably comes as as little surprise that folks who do fire installation as part of their business value training. A recent SSN poll showed that they also think going the extra mile with high-level training, like NICET, is also important.
Tom Hammerberg, president and executive director of the Automatic Fire Alarm Association said he found the results encouraging. “It’s good to see there are number of people who feel training is important, because it very much is,” he said.